Lesson Plan

Info

Test and Evaluate the Prototype | Engineering for Good

How can you test your prototype? How can your prototype be improved? Students will describe how they would test their prototypes and what type of data they would be generating from their tests. Students will give feedback on other student groups’ designs. This is lesson 7 of 10 in Engineering for Good, a NGSS-aligned, project-based learning unit.

KQED Teach is here to support you in doing these projects with your students. We encourage you to take or review our self-paced courses, Making Infographics and Video Storytelling Essentials, prior to beginning this unit if you are not already regularly integrating media projects into your classroom. Sign up is required (and free) to access courses.

Lesson Summary

In this lesson, students will describe how they would test their prototypes and what type of data they would be generating from their tests. Students will give feedback on other student groups’ designs.

Time Allotment

45-60 minutes

Learning Objectives

Students will describe how they would test their prototypes and what type of data they would be generating from their tests. Students will give feedback on other student groups’ designs.

Introductory Activity

Introduction/Hook

2. Recall the Engineering Is Cleaning Drinking Water in Bangladesh story. How did the engineers and scientists test their designs? What kind of data were they looking for?3. As a class, discuss why it is important to be testing and improving the design. What if the design works the first time? Use a common item as an example. Why are there new versions of smartphones, computers, light bulbs or cars, even though the first models may have worked?

Learning Activities

Guided Practice

1. In small groups, have students discuss how they would test their designs. Some groups may actually be able to test their prototypes (see extension below). They may have drawings instead of working models, or may not have access to locations where they would test their models. If that’s the case, they can think about how they would test them if they could. What kind of data would they gather to see how well their prototype worked? For example, if their solution was a device that collected plastic items, it may be the number of pieces of plastic collected. Or, if the solution was a device that filtered water to collect plastic pieces, the data may be the percentage of plastic pieces collected. They can record their ideas on page 14 of their notebooks.2. Explain that since most groups are not able to test their prototypes, the groups will engage in a feedback process with each other in order to help them improve their designs. (Note: You may wish to invite another class of students or your administrators into your classroom to provide feedback.)3. Explain and model the process.

There will be a recorder and presenter in each group.

Review the feedback guidelines on page 15 of the student notebook.

Presenter from Group A takes one minute to explain the group’s prototype.

Group B has two minutes to ask questions for clarification about how the prototype works.

Group A answers the questions. The recorder takes notes in the table on page 15 of the student notebook.

Group B has three minutes to provide feedback. Using the sentence frames on page 15 of their notebooks, each member of Group B offers two things they like and one thing that could be improved.

The recorder from Group A records the feedback in the table on page 15 of the student notebook.

Groups A and B switch roles.

Independent Practice

1. Assign a presenter and recorder in each small group.2. Pair up the groups to get feedback on their designs. 3. Set a timer for each part of the process. 4. Have groups go through the feedback process.5. Repeat this process pairing up different groups, as desired.6. After the feedback process is complete, have students review their notes in their small groups and circle the items that they think are the most important to address.

Culminating Activity

Assessment/Reflection

Were students successful in providing feedback to their peers about each other’s prototypes?

Extension

If it is possible for students to test their prototype after step 1 in Guided Practice, have them do so and record data and notes from their tests on page 14 of their notebooks.

Students will compare their process they use during an in-class engineering challenge to the steps of the engineering design process.

2: Investigate the Plastic Problem

120 minutes

Students will create an infographic based on what they learn about how we use plastics and how they impact our environment.

3: Define the Plastic Problem

30 minutes

Students will define and refine the problem--related to effects of plastic on the environment--that they investigated when making their infographics.

4: Identify Criteria and Constraints

35 minutes

Students will identify the criteria and constraints of the solution for their design problem by considering scientific principles and potential impacts on people and the environment.

5: Brainstorm and Evaluate Solutions

70 minutes

Students will brainstorm possible solutions for their plastic problem and select the most promising one.

6: Prototype the Solution

90 minutes

Students will develop a prototype of their solution.

7: Test and Evaluate the Prototype

45-60 minutes

Students will describe how they would test their prototypes and what type of data they would be generating from their tests.

Students will give feedback on other student groups’ designs.

8: Iterate to Improve the Prototype

60 minutes

Students will iterate and improve their design.

9: Communicate the Solution

120 minutes

Students will plan, write and produce a one-minute video to communicate their solution.

Students will participate in peer feedback.

10: Share and Reflect

60 minutes

Students will publish a one-minute video of their engineering solutions.

Students will participate in self-evaluation.

Note to Teachers

Engineering for Good was designed to help you integrate engineering into your science classroom with a fun, meaningful, hands-on project. It provides support for teachers to guide students through the engineering design process to develop solutions to a real-world problem. Engineering for Good is focused on developing solutions for impacts of plastics on the environment, though the specific problem the students tackle is defined by them.

Connections to the ClassroomWe chose plastics as a way to fit into many middle school science classrooms regardless of your grade level or science discipline. You may choose to connect this unit to life science or earth and space science standards about human impact on the environment. If you are teaching physical science, you may want to explore the chemistry of plastics—from polymers to monomers—and why their chemical structure means they don’t break down. Some of you may want to focus on the health impacts of plastics—how they accumulate toxins or how some leach chemicals. The focus you choose will also guide your students in defining their plastics problem to solve.

We’re Going to Make Media?Yes, but you have our support! There are two main media-making projects within Engineering for Good—infographics about the plastic problem, and narrated/captioned slideshows or videos about the students’ solutions. For some students, this will be their favorite part of the unit. KQED Teach is here to support you in doing these projects with your students. We encourage you to take or review our self-paced courses, Making Infographics and Video Storytelling Essentials, prior to beginning this unit if you are not already regularly integrating media projects into your classroom. These courses are not specific to Engineering for Good, but will provide you with useful skills to assist your students in the media-making components of the unit. We have also developed an introductory lesson on infographics to prepare your students for creating infographics as part of Engineering for Good. For the culminating slideshows or videos, we suggest that you or your students take photos of their work (e.g. sketches, prototypes, etc.) along the way so that they can be incorporated into the final products. Remember to share your students’ infographics and videos online with the KQED Learning community using #EngineeringForGood.

What Should Students’ Solutions Look Like?Solutions can be physical objects, or even processes for doing something better or more efficiently. The Engineering for Good unit assumes that students will be creating a prototype of some sort. During the pilot testing of this unit, many students wanted to focus on changing people’s behavior as a way to reduce plastic use or increase recycling rates, instead of designing a physical “thing” to address an impact of plastic on the environment. Some students designed posters to raise awareness of the plastic problem as their solutions. Is the poster a solution? First, go back to the problem statement. Does the problem statement specifically state people’s awareness of plastic as the problem? If so, then a poster may be a solution if it is combined with a process or system that the students can articulate, test and iterate on.

Student Feedback and ReflectionThe lessons in this unit ask students to provide feedback to their peers and reflect on their own experiences. As you know, these skills can be new or challenging for middle school students. During the pilot process, many teachers said they were most successful when they explicitly practiced or reinforced these skills while teaching the unit. In response to this feedback, we have provided some structure to help guide students through these steps. You may have your own procedures that you wish to use instead.

A Framework for Other Engineering ChallengesEngineering for Good was designed to be used as a framework for other engineering challenges. Because the lessons walk through the steps of the engineering design process, you should be able to easily lift out the plastics-specific content and replace it with a different topic. We hope that you continue to use the resources in this unit with your students to develop solutions to other problems relevant to your curriculum and community.

View the lessons by clicking the button below or using the links to the right. Have a question? Send a note to ScienceEd@kqed.org.